My world walk Blog new Zealand 17 The immaculate conception.
The immaculate conception.
Once again, it was time for me to say goodbye to yet more
wonderful people who have kindly hosted me on my global walk. This time
it was Ger Sheehan and his wife Caroline
in Cambridge. I got an escort out of town through a nice park where
young children rode their bicycles with delight as parents walked or
cycled alongside to keep them in check. My escort included my hosts two
children Carrie and Kate, aged 5 and 7. Definitely, the laugh of the
weekend was reserved for Kate who said: "Daddy can you tell Tony to
hurry up because I want to cycle faster?"
As always it was difficult saying goodbye. It's so easy to make friends, but so difficult to just walk away and out of their lives. These kind people I met through an intervention from our mutual friend Maeve Hegarty. Thank you, Maeve and it was such a joyful bonus meeting two of Irelands rowing world champions, Mark O'Donovan and Shane O Driscoll, along with their coach Dominic Casey.
That glorious Sunday I walked my entire 25 kilometres on park footpaths and minor roads, such a joy. I wished all of the world's roads were like that.
When I got to within ten kilometres of Hamilton my old friends Roger and Silvia came out to greet me. Roger is a runner and a cyclist and walked the remaining two hours with me to their swanky home in a posh side of Hamilton. Silvia is making a comeback to running and plans a half-marathon after an absence from the sport. Cycling and running are also her main pursuits. On our walk that day Roger told how he met Silvia. He and his brother were in a bicycle rental store in British Colombia as they planned to cycle in a national park. Silvie who is from French-speaking Quebec just happened to be in the store at the same time but was speaking Spanish to help some Chilean tourists select their bicycles. She is also fluent in Spanish as her mother was Mexican. After taking a shine to Silvia, Roger just said to her: "You are probably going cycling to the same place as us, so why don't you just come along?" And the rest is history as she eventually moved to New Zealand and found a job as French and Spanish speaking interpreter.
It was great to be back, I also stayed with them on my world run. They are also great friends of my world runner friend Tom Denniss. When Tom was running across America, Rogers brother, Don who lives in Colorado provided a car for Carmel Denniss, Toms wife to crew him with.
As always it was difficult saying goodbye. It's so easy to make friends, but so difficult to just walk away and out of their lives. These kind people I met through an intervention from our mutual friend Maeve Hegarty. Thank you, Maeve and it was such a joyful bonus meeting two of Irelands rowing world champions, Mark O'Donovan and Shane O Driscoll, along with their coach Dominic Casey.
That glorious Sunday I walked my entire 25 kilometres on park footpaths and minor roads, such a joy. I wished all of the world's roads were like that.
When I got to within ten kilometres of Hamilton my old friends Roger and Silvia came out to greet me. Roger is a runner and a cyclist and walked the remaining two hours with me to their swanky home in a posh side of Hamilton. Silvia is making a comeback to running and plans a half-marathon after an absence from the sport. Cycling and running are also her main pursuits. On our walk that day Roger told how he met Silvia. He and his brother were in a bicycle rental store in British Colombia as they planned to cycle in a national park. Silvie who is from French-speaking Quebec just happened to be in the store at the same time but was speaking Spanish to help some Chilean tourists select their bicycles. She is also fluent in Spanish as her mother was Mexican. After taking a shine to Silvia, Roger just said to her: "You are probably going cycling to the same place as us, so why don't you just come along?" And the rest is history as she eventually moved to New Zealand and found a job as French and Spanish speaking interpreter.
It was great to be back, I also stayed with them on my world run. They are also great friends of my world runner friend Tom Denniss. When Tom was running across America, Rogers brother, Don who lives in Colorado provided a car for Carmel Denniss, Toms wife to crew him with.
At Roger and Sylvia's house, we were joined by their friend Rob Hammington. I was kindly treated to a bar-b-que in my honour. We had a great chat about old times and about my walk.
On Monday I took a rest day and enjoyed a coffee with Roger at a downtown award-winning Scott's Epicurean coffee shop. We spoke about sport, some of the local social issues and even about New Zealand's new Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Aged 37 she is the countries youngest leader in over a hundred years. She is the leader of the Labour party who are in a coalition with New Zealand First party. She was drawn to politics when as a young woman she was perplexed by many social issues and the sight of barefoot children running around her native Hamilton. Mormon-raised she obviously had a rebel streak as fell out of favour and with that church when she disagreed with their anti-same-sex marriage beliefs. Eventually, in her twenties, she left the religion.
Many mischievous Kiwis have been at pains to tell me that she and her partner Clark Gayford, a popular radio host are expecting their first child. She discovered she was pregnant only six days before assuming leadership of the country. It was well known that the couple had been trying unsuccessfully to have a child and had even received fertility treatment. Doctors thought her chances of conceiving was a longshot. Then suddenly she was pregnant. During a gleeful press conference when the joyful couple tried to explain this to the assembled press she muddled up her words and said: "I just don't know how I got pregnant!"
You can imagine the laughter that greeted that!
When the baby is born in June Ms Ardern will take a six-week maternity break but will still be kept up to speed with the day-to-day running of the country which will be temporarily taken over by her deputy, Winston Peters. Aged 72, he is almost twice her age. Clark Gayford is taking a career break from his radio show to be a stay-at-home dad.
Ms Ardern is also set to be only the second elected leader to have given birth while in power. In 1990 Benazir Bhutto gave birth while she was the leader of Pakistan.
On Monday I took a rest day and enjoyed a coffee with Roger at a downtown award-winning Scott's Epicurean coffee shop. We spoke about sport, some of the local social issues and even about New Zealand's new Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Aged 37 she is the countries youngest leader in over a hundred years. She is the leader of the Labour party who are in a coalition with New Zealand First party. She was drawn to politics when as a young woman she was perplexed by many social issues and the sight of barefoot children running around her native Hamilton. Mormon-raised she obviously had a rebel streak as fell out of favour and with that church when she disagreed with their anti-same-sex marriage beliefs. Eventually, in her twenties, she left the religion.
Many mischievous Kiwis have been at pains to tell me that she and her partner Clark Gayford, a popular radio host are expecting their first child. She discovered she was pregnant only six days before assuming leadership of the country. It was well known that the couple had been trying unsuccessfully to have a child and had even received fertility treatment. Doctors thought her chances of conceiving was a longshot. Then suddenly she was pregnant. During a gleeful press conference when the joyful couple tried to explain this to the assembled press she muddled up her words and said: "I just don't know how I got pregnant!"
You can imagine the laughter that greeted that!
When the baby is born in June Ms Ardern will take a six-week maternity break but will still be kept up to speed with the day-to-day running of the country which will be temporarily taken over by her deputy, Winston Peters. Aged 72, he is almost twice her age. Clark Gayford is taking a career break from his radio show to be a stay-at-home dad.
Ms Ardern is also set to be only the second elected leader to have given birth while in power. In 1990 Benazir Bhutto gave birth while she was the leader of Pakistan.
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